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April 2004: Nonprofit Service Month ( In grateful recognition of outstanding community service In recent years Washington communities and the organizations that serve them have experienced unusual challenges. We have experienced changes in the economy, in the world situation, and in the lives of stakeholders, beneficiaries and supporters alike. These changes require nonprofits to redesign their work while remaining true to a standard of community service that has deep roots in our nation’s character. The seven Washington nonprofits receiving 2004 Evergreen Awards demonstrate creativity and the spirit of cooperation in their missions and their programs. Their work exemplifies the commitment to accomplishment that unites volunteers, supporters, collaborating organizations and staff around the goal of service to the community. The Evergreen State Society presents these awards as tokens of appreciation for dedication to public benefit work and to the people, causes and communities they and the many other nonprofit organizations of our state have taken it upon themselves to serve.
Catholic Community Services of King County In recognition of sustained commitment to responding to the needs of poor and vulnerable people with skillful services, support for self-help efforts, and advocacy for change in systems that oppress, discriminate or otherwise cause human suffering. Each year, 25,000 of our neighbors are helped by Catholic Community Services of King County. Since 1918, day in and day out, dedicated staff and volunteers help children, families, and elderly persons and persons with disabilities in King County regardless of race, creed, or financial means. The work follows a service philosophy of individualized, tailored attention and recognizes that every person seeking services has a different background and a different need. In its programs, Catholic Community Services builds on people’s strengths, rather than on problems or failures. The services provided by Catholic Community Services are often based on collaborating with other groups and on enlisting volunteers to mobilize for projects benefiting the community. Individuals who participate increase their awareness about the problems that our community faces and renew a sense of ownership and neighborliness. Volunteer Chore Services brings large groups of volunteers together for service days to perform community cleanup projects. Congregations for the Homeless works with churches throughout the community to open doors to the homeless for a safe place to stay the night and a warm meal. The Youth Tutoring Program pairs youth with successful mentors and Foster Grandparents pairs elders and youth to build a mutual relationship in a time when many kids do not have the benefit of wisdom from their own grandparents. At the same time, the elders are given the opportunity to laugh with children again. Through the years, Catholic Community Services has demonstrated both leadership and persistence with creative responses to people in need — in its own programs, by the mobilization of volunteers, and through cooperative effort with other community organizations. Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas In recognition of progressive programs encouraging thought and debate on the role of African Americans in American culture. Distinguished programming is a characteristic of the Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas. Consider these outstanding examples: Henry Louis Gates, Christopher Paul Curtis and Ernestine Anderson. All have appeared at forum events. And other events have encouraged newer artists. The forum has commissioned work, presented work from around the country and worked on numerous co-sponsorships that bring into focus the integral role we all play in creating the fabric of our society. The range of work that springs from forum programs is created to broaden the view of African American culture, lift racial limitations, and enlighten all citizens. The Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas has also spurred important community discussions on topics that are central to politics and our changing neighborhoods. The audiences represent a mosaic of many ages and ethnicities. Through its programs, the Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas is evolving a new kind of organization, one with an expansive vision of how racial and ethnic heritage can be an instigator of diverse interactions expanding the self-definition of our community In the summer of 2004, the forum will offer the first-ever Black Science Fiction Festival, three days of presentations, discussions and celebrations of imaginative writing by black authors from across the country. Black to the Future: A Black Science Fiction Festival has already drawn national and international interest from individuals of all colors, seeking to expand their understanding of the degree to which writers of color have contributed to the canon of science fiction work. In its five years of growth, the Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas has brought challenges and insights to the artists and presenters who have been engaged by the organization and to the diverse communities it has served. Elder and Adult Day Services In recognition of 20 years of providing a safe and caring environment that encourages and celebrates integrity, individuality, and independence for elders and disabled people. Since 1984, Elder and Adult Day Services has benefited the communities it serves by providing an alternative to isolation and by building strong peer and support networks for the elderly and for those who love them. Elder and Adult Day Services offer all-day structured programs for elderly and disabled people to allow caregivers time to meet other day-to-day responsibilities and to give participants both independence and relief from the anxieties that come with being cared for. Daily programs offer meals, group activities, health monitoring, rehabilitation, socialization and exercise to those in need who are elderly or disabled. Recently, Elder and Adult Day Services has expanded its reach to offer services in Bremerton and Des Moines as well as Bellevue and Issaquah. In cooperation with other organizations serving the elderly and disabled people throughout the region, Elder and Adult Day Services works to enhance the public’s knowledge and awareness of the challenges facing the elderly and disabled adults, their families, and the communities where they live. By working together, these organizations can assure dignity and security for the increasing population of people who draw upon their services today and in the future. www.eadscares.org ("coming soon" 4/5/05) Executive Alliance In recognition of the development of an effective voice for nonprofit community service organizations. A membership association, Executive Alliance brings together nonprofit organizations of every type and scale and draws upon its members’ experience and knowledge to increase public awareness of the contributions made by the community’s nonprofits while reinforcing their ability to serve with knowledge, shared expertise, and mutual support. Among the many initiatives supporting these goals of Executive Alliance has been an effort in the recent past to create settings in which nonprofit leaders spend productive time with leaders from the for-profit sectior. Active delegations of nonprofit people attended the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce Annual Leadership Conferences. In 2003, this presence led to recognition from the podium of the importance of nonprofits in the health of our community. Executive Alliance makes a serious commitment to finding interesting presenters and using inventive formats to ensure full participation and lively exchange of ideas. This pattern has been applied in efforts to address policy matters - especially with King County - as well as to explore the common frustrations and satisfactions that come from doing nonprofit work. Working with its members and communications experts, Executive Alliance has developed a theme we all can use to remind ourselves and our audiences of the importance of our work: “Nonprofits are essential to a healthy community and thriving economy.” Hedgebrook In recognition of support for the writing of women throughout the world. Hedgebrook, in Langley on Whidbey Island, invests in women who write by providing them with space and time to create significant work, in solitude and community, and by developing an international network to connect writers and audiences. Founded fifteen years ago by Nancy Skinner Nordhoff, Hedgebrook has provided residencies of up to two months for more than 800 women writers from across the globe. Applicants need not be previously published; there is no requirement that a specific product result from the time spent in one of Hedgbrook’s cabins and in community with other writers in residence there. Today, Hedgebrook continues to be an unduplicated resource, a 50-acre retreat where women writers discover their authentic voices through freedom from distractions and an undisturbed opportunity to work. Poet Aleida Rodriguez wrote of Hedgebrook, “This blessed place…is a blueprint for a community of love and support that we will carry out, in our writing and in our hearts, to our world. The craft and courage that went into creating Hedgebrook has seeped into my bones and I leave charged and changed, to write and live and pass it on….” Northwest Development Officers Association In recognition of twenty-five years of volunteer commitment to excellence and professionalism in raising funds for community projects throughout the northwest. In the Northwest Development Officers Association, its eight hundred members and many other fundraising professionals find collegial peer support, networking, and comprehensive training opportunities that advance philanthropy in our state and strengthen our communities. As community demand for nonprofit services has grown, the professionals in the Northwest Development Officers Association have refined and exchanged more sophisticated fundraising strategies so that community service organizations can successfully support their work through access to a wider range of resources. By offering scholarships to individuals and organizations, by opening its programs to nonmembers, through working closely with university programs, and through collaboration with other organizations serving the nonprofits of our region, the Northwest Development Officers Association demonstrates a deep commitment to benefiting the community. Northwest Lions Foundation for Sight and Hearing In recognition of innovative work assuring sight and hearing care with a passion for quality and excellence benefiting 40,000 children and adults each year. Working with Lions Clubs throughout the northwest, the Lions Foundation for Sight and Hearing improve access to preventive health care, increases self-reliance among the sight and hearing impaired and aids the underserved — children, seniors, and low-income families. The most common congenital birth defect is hearing loss. After five years of collaboration with Children’s Hospital and Medical Center, the proportion of newborns screened for hearing loss in our region has grown from 7% to 83%. The Eye Bank makes cornea transplants possible in Montana, Idaho and Washington by distributing the necessary eye tissue. A mobile health screening unit travels throughout Idaho and Washington supporting early detection and treatment of vision and hearing impairments. Starting in 2004, the Northwest Lions Foundation for Sight and Hearing will manufacture and distribute through sliding-scale sales affordable hearing aids with the goals of expanding the number of people it serves ten times to reach many more of the estimated 600,000 northwesterners who suffer hearing loss. Building on its close relations with Lions Clubs throughout the region, the Foundation improves the lives of thousands each year, neighbors who would otherwise live in silence or darkness, isolated by the loss of hearing or sight. © 2004, The Evergreen State Society, Seattle, Washington, USA |
